Elephants/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are on a safari. Moby, wearing a straw hat, is munching on a bag of peanuts and offers some to an elephant next to him. The elephant knocks the peanuts out of Moby's hand with its snout. TIM: I don't think elephants really like peanuts. Straw, on the other hand, they're into. The elephant takes Moby's hat. The elephant spits out the belt that was on the hat and it lands on Moby's head. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, could you please do a video about elephants? They are so cool, but I really don't know much about them! Thanks, Katie T. We sure can. Elephants are large mammals. That means that, just like us, they're warmblooded and feed milk to their young. Images show an elephant, a drop of blood with a thermometer, and a baby bottle full of milk. TIM: Actually, large is an understatement. They're the largest land animals alive today! An image shows an elephant next to a man's silhouette. The top of the man's head is even with the elephant's tusks. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the biggest elephants stand up to four meters tall and weigh as much as 12,000 kilograms. An animation shows that an elephant and a semi-truck placed on a balance scale weigh about the same. TIM: There are two main types, named after their home continents. African elephants live in grasslands and rain forests throughout Africa. An image shows an African elephant. A map shows the areas where they live in Africa. TIM: Asian elephants live in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. An image shows an Asian elephant. A map shows where they live in Asia. TIM: Elephants are known for their intelligence, which rivals that of dolphins and chimpanzees! An animation shows an elephant, chimpanzee, and dolphin sitting at desks in a classroom. TIM: But let's face it, the first thing you notice about an elephant is its trunk. This long limb is actually a combination of its nose and upper lip. The elephant touches Moby with its trunk. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's for way more than just smelling. The trunk contains thousands of muscles, as well as finger-like projections at the tip, two for African elephants, one for Asian elephants. An animation shows the muscles in an elephant's trunk and details of the fingerlike tips of an elephant's trunk. The fingerlike projections appear at the top and bottom of the African elephant's trunk tip, and at the top of the Asian elephant's trunk tip. Each trunk has two teardrop-shaped nostrils. TIM: The fingers are sensitive enough to pick up a single leaf or fruit, but the trunk is strong enough to rip down a whole tree branch! Side-by-side images show an elephant picking up an apple with the tip of its trunk and an elephant ripping down a tree branch using its trunk. TIM: The trunk also helps an elephant drink by sucking up water and blowing it into its mouth, or it can spray water all over its body to stay cool! Images show an elephant drinking and an elephant spraying water on itself with its trunk. MOBY: Beep. Moby is sitting on the elephant's tusk. TIM: Right. Elephants have pointy tusks, which are actually upper teeth that keep on growing. They're ideal tools for digging, clearing paths, and even self-defense. An image shows an elephant that has two tusks, one on each side of its trunk. Images illustrate the elephant using its tusks in the ways that Tim describes. TIM: You might also notice an elephant's floppy ears, which are made of thin layers of skin stretched over networks of fine blood vessels. An animation shows an elephant flapping its ears. Blood vessels inside of them are shown. TIM: When the ears flap, the breeze cools down the blood in those vessels, lowering the elephant's body temperature. The animation shows circular arrows to indicate the air flowing over the elephant as it flaps its ears. The air flows toward the body and then up and around on each side of the elephant. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds on to the elephant's leg and rubs it. TIM: Yup, the skin that covers the rest of the elephant is thick and tough. An image shows a close-up of wrinkled, rough skin on an elephant's leg. TIM: The legs are wide and straight, and the feet are padded with a jelly-like material that acts as a shock absorber. An image shows the elephant's legs with a close-up image of the jelly-like material in its feet. TIM: Here's another fun fact: With an average mass of five kilograms, elephants have bigger brains than any land animal, and they're among the most complex, too. An image shows an elephant's brain. Then the brain is shown next to the brains of a dolphin, human, chimp, and cat. The elephant brain is the largest. TIM: That helps explain their strong memories. They can recall paths to distant watering holes they haven't visited in years! An image shows a group of elephants by a watering hole. TIM: Elephants also display a broad range of emotions, from grief to joy to compassion. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, they're very social. Elephant society is complex, with females forming tight-knit family groups called herds. An image shows a herd of five elephants. TIM: Once they mature, males leave to go live on their own and will only seek out herds during mating season. But keeping in touch is no problem for elephants, since they can communicate over long distances. Elephants can make a rumbling growl that travels through the ground in the form of low-frequency vibrations. Other individuals can detect these vibrations up to ten kilometers away. An animation illustrates vibrations traveling through the ground between two elephants as Tim describes. TIM: Then there's the unmistakable trumpet call, which elephants blast from their trunks when they're excited, startled, or just plain mad. The elephant puts his trunk next to Moby and trumpets. Moby is startled and almost falls off his truck. MOBY: Beep. TIM: He probably wants another hat. Since they're so big, elephants eat a lot; an adult consumes about five percent of its body weight per day. An image shows a pile of plants in front of an elephant. TIM: They're herbivores, or plant-eaters, with a varied diet that includes leaves, roots, grass, tree bark, and whatever fruits they can find. An animation shows the food Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Unfortunately, food is getting scarce as human settlements continue to expand into elephant habitats. And elephants have long been hunted for their tusks, which are made of ivory, a precious material used to make all sorts of items. An image shows an elephant and a close-up of its tusks. Images show examples of items made out of ivory: a carved statue, piano keys, and billiard balls. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The good news is that many governments now recognize elephants as endangered, or at risk of becoming extinct. So they've established protected parks and passed laws banning hunting. And a number of international organizations are leading efforts to ensure the survival of these amazing animals. An image shows organizations with their logos. The organizations are Elephant Nature Foundation, WWF, and Save the Elephants. TIM: Hey, I just thought of an idea for how we can do our part! Tim's thought bubble shows him hosting a fundraiser game show to save elephants. TIM: Welcome back to Are you Smarter Than an Elephant! An elephant plays against Moby and wins with two thousand, four hundred points while Moby earns only two hundred points. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts